Why That Chunky Sweater Is $1,000

11/20/2013 12:47PM

Designer fashion is exorbitantly expensive, with the spring 2014 collections seeing a leap in prices. Christina Binkley takes a look why prices are so extreme for one hot look of the moment: the chunky sweater. Photo: F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... the two thousand dollar wool sweater seventy thousand dollar me best and when to cut costs and for granted ... I welcome to the new map of high end fashion with just five years after the financial crisis ... luxury goods are so high price at ... the map is a little bit hard to comprehend but are on stock calmness Chris Binkley ... she's in a given its rising joins us right now Arike miso ... but start by walking through a few of the more eye popping price tags this season ... all of them coming up in sweaters what should we be looking at ... well it when designers when a person first and bring to break itself or is the pork figure price tag ... is in a struggle of finding and buying a sweater for less than a thousand dollars in you can easily climb up to two thousand dollars ... angel standards making one of them this her sweater Cloche dinner and this this is sad that brand sweater talking in its wax twenty one four at twenty one hundred and forty boxes right ... yet ... yet look let's roll with the practice here that ... every sweater we'd look at is absolutely that unless they feel that they're all natural fibers ... so we're we're not questioning whether the great quality they are indeed better be for the preference of ice always anything's particular special bout the Jill Sander sweater that would warrant that price tag in your opinion Chris ... as it saw its yield substantial I suspect that if I bought it ... and kept it that I haven't in years to know that still look good for the complete care of it than that of course that's the standard line of designer fashion group in their investment things ... that you know what that entails and are we able until standards styling is a key part of that soon ... he died of sweater that looks great it's well made ... but how does that leave a word that's important the label of dust that had gone there ... is a big part of value that sweater and not just for Jill Sander buffer Burberry on Stella McCartney both of them weighing in with sweaters that are ... therefore figures that you know one question this leads me to write so ... are the garments and getting better christening using a novel materials to do to cure cancer ... that they can cure cancer and great right right that the bargains mission call Obamacare ... um you know I would argue that it is whether they're probably not getting better there are other elements of designer fashions wear ... where research and textiles is really getting better but the sweater ... has been a great item of clothing for for more than a hundred years to have that you can do ... that then we can continue to go to ... um but what you do have is more expensive and we are on the ingredient price and there are rising across fashion ... and and will potentially or are part of that and we have ... that inflation at every level of the game mark after rising at the retail level ... of new parties are down and factories are charging more for for a piece rate so this all adds up to a creepy friends for them to ... the retailer's the key spoken to say about about the risk of consumers potentially ... getting turned off by this Chris ... I think it's happening with the matter that that ... that first little indications of how to fall off all sales of gardens ... are coming in and it's not looking good I talked with retailers in Birmingham Michigan who said ... she got a raffle of four thousand dollar winter coats that beautiful but they're not selling she thinks that ... a big part of the problem is the price is just too much for basic item that people probably had something similar and the wardrobe ... is competing with that that the island I love the sweater and really matters if you can tell the difference in this particular retailer he spoke to me she has been ... on very specific in and telling quote she said if you take Televisa sweaters laden next to each other the very expensive once a the twenty nine dollar one if the lady next to each other ... you should be able to see the difference and if you can't ... you should be in a twenty nine dollars sweater she may take up ... a little bit of dot Gov for that but that the buy what you think you're great ... absolutely it intended to be a marginal difference it should be ... a big difference between the two sweaters that are new in most cases they didn't do that that that twenty nine dollars sweater probably has a lot of my owner of the many imperial students probably not very well manufactured ... but you know that the real crux of it comes in when you're comparing ... uh hundred and fifty dollars for two thousand dollars sweater into a hundred fifty dollars fine or maybe ... really nice probably made in China ... but does that mean that much difference to you have how much he wanted to hinder the ingredients for the bottom line a lot of it comes down to your own bank account ... yes you feel good about standing and it's not just letters Avici men were talking she Tuesday's me the best that we talked about a moment ago handbags obviously ... been a lot of this is half to be a guest peer pressure between the labels I would imagine Chris ... woman attacked when when they factor that I that's that that ... that really well-known brand called my local do that than there were pricey sweaters ... they come up with a price that they want ... to go to the manufacturer at the factory they say you want this sweater at five under twenty five dollars how can we get to a